Houston senator declares guns-on-campus bill dead

Updated 1:11 am, Thursday, April 25, 2013

AUSTIN — Sen. John Whitmire on Wednesdsay pronounced an embattled "campus carry" bill dead for this legislative session, citing the lingering effect of last year's Sandy Hook shooting that claimed the lives of 20 school children.

"I don't think there is any question that the tragedies around the country, most recently at Sandy Hook, put a chilling effect on broadening the right to carry on campuses and other venues," said Whitmire, D-Houston. "I personally think we need a cooling-off period."

Whitmire effectively shot down the chances of Senate Bill 182, which would allow concealed handgun license holders to carry firearms in college classrooms and buildings, from being considered in the Criminal Justice Committee, which he chairs.

Asked if the legislation is dead, Whitmire said that was a safe assumption, calling it a "very divisive" issue.

In December, a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., sparking a White House call for stricter gun control and a national conversation about gun violence and mental illness. A bid to broaden background checks on gun purchases failed in the U.S. Senate last week. A previous attempt to revive a national assault weapons ban also went nowhere.

Katy Republican Sen. Glenn Hegar said he filed a narrower proposal Monday to guarantee students with concealed handgun licenses the right to transport and store handguns in their vehicles on campus after "obviously knowing that (campus carry) bill is not going anywhere."

Whitmire's comments came after his committee passed Hegar's SB 1907 on to the full Senate. Whitmire said he expected Hegar's proposal to pass.

"It is their own personal vehicle, their own personal firearm," Hegar said of his bill. "It is locked out of sight, out of mind; no one knows it's there's and it's their Second Amendment right."

Hegar passed legislation last session that prohibits employers from adopting any policy that would ban its employees from transporting and storing any legal firearm, including long rifles, in their vehicles on the premises. That bill applies also to university employees, leaving students at a disadvantage, he said.

The stalled campus carry proposal, which former state Sen. Jeff Wentworth unsuccessfully sought to pass last session, would require schools to allow students, faculty and staff who have concealed handgun licenses to carry firearms anywhere on campus.

State law currently restricts firearms from being carried in college buildings, but leaves other areas, such as parking lots, up to individual institutions.

The lower chamber's version of the campus carry bill, HB 972, passed out of committee to the full House Monday, but has not yet been scheduled for consideration.

"The Senate voted 29-0 to suspend rules to let this nonsensical bill be introduced Monday night, to be heard on Tuesday with, basically, no opportunity for public input, and at the same time, they still haven't set a hearing for universal background checks legislation, which has overwhelming support from 78 percent of Texans," said John Woods, a board member for Texas Gun Sense whose girlfriend was killed in the Virginia Tech massacre. "Their priorities are all out of whack."